Alliance Recruitment Agency is an international recruiting, staffing, HR services and placement service provider for overseas and international businesses, start-ups and firms in the USA, Canada, UAE, UK, and India.

We are one of the largest recruitment company providing recruitment process outsourcing services to global businesses from India.

Skillset Vs Cultural Fit Candidate? What to Emphasis More When Recruiting

A lot of debate has taken place for hiring candidates in the corporate world and the strategies that employers follow when it comes to interviews and group discussions. The dilemma lies whether the recruitment preference should surround those candidates that fit the corporate culture or it should lie on the talent and skill of individuals that have the ability to take a business to new heights. The dilemma is more intense than expected and making a choice becomes tough for the employers. Whether a candidate should be culturally fit or have the desired skill sets is hard to determine when the situation is viewed from the employer’s side.

1. Culturally fit candidates

What exactly is the implication of hiring a candidate that synchronizes with the culture? The term is more contextual in regards to the company culture. In fact, it is indeed important to realize that candidates with little or no knowledge of the corporate culture cannot survive or stay afloat perhaps because they have never worked in the ambience that prevails in the corporate world. Often, the company culture is more like those hackneyed aspects that recruiters can ignore. There are certain buzzwords that makes rounds in companies often although it is all about real time action.

2. Inconsistencies in culture

A company comprises of various departments which explains that there cannot be a uniform culture in a corporate organization. Thus, a candidate fits better with the culture of one department but not with the others. Under such circumstances, the hiring process is not difficult and employers will have little concern while recruiting candidates in different fields. In short, it is easy to recruit cultural fit candidates in this respect. For instance, hiring individuals for business development is different than recruiting candidates for assurance. Although these candidates will have different sets of skills, they will work along with a team.

3. Removing bias between skills sets and culture

Until recently, the emphasis was more on recruiting candidates with appropriate skills and expertise although the scenario has changed in the present times. Nowadays, a recruiter has to look for individuals where there is a balance of skillset and cultural fit. Thus, a candidate has to have the right set of skills and the talent required for completing the assigned tasks. At the same time, it is necessary to align with the social and cultural aspects of an organization. After all, attitude matters a lot and it is hard to impart training for developing the soft skills and easy enough to train candidates for aspects that are solely related to work.

4. The concerning issues

There is a lot of concern in the recruitment process when it comes to measuring the skill of candidates. It is hard to quantify the cultural aspects although the talent is within the purview of measurement. Companies can begin by applying several approaches despite the fact that knowledge or talent has to be weighed along with cultural fitness.

5. Changing the conventional methods

Although discussions can continue regarding what makes sense to recruit candidates that are more in sync with the culture of the company or the qualifications, arriving at a decision is important. A recruitment company must have the ability to differentiate the skill that they want and the skills for which training is a must. In other words, candidate skillsets are more likely to vary but the company that is recruiting candidates must have quality instructors for training them.

Things to remember

Whether it is about hiring candidates with appropriate knowledge of the social milieu that prevails in the corporate world or having the necessary skills required for doing the work successfully it is indeed difficult to arrive at a decision. It is hard to predict which is more important, skills or culture although it can be expected that recruitment companies will have to change their hiring methodologies to get rid of the bias that is related to talent and cultural relevance.

Director & Founder of Alliance International (India , Gulf ,UK & USA) Experienced professional in Human Resource Management, alliance international took on us to service corporate in different Industries across the geography with Human Capital Management.